Loss and Identity Crisis: Muslim and Christian Sudanese Women in Dialogue

Abstract

From early 1995 through late 1998 I lived in Khartoum. As the wife of the British Ambassador to Sudan, I enjoyed a privileged position which contributed to a unique experiment in peace building between northern and southern, urban and displaced, Muslim and Christian women. ‘Listening to loss’ dialogue, based on listening therapy as pioneered by the Samaritans UK, resulted in a spectacular breach in the Christian/Muslim divide. What occurred offers suggestions for Muslim/Christian reconciliation as well as a possible method for personal healing, conflict resolution, and community reconciliation in post-civil-war Sudan. ‘Women’s work’ was something I never wanted to do. For years I even avoided women’s tea parties. Listening to Sudanese women in peace dialogue would change that. In conversation about their pain and identity issues, the women confronted my own beliefs, fears, and vulnerabilities. It began at a tea party.